境
also: きょう
Meanings
Usually read さかい. Refers to a line or division between places, properties, categories, or opposing sides.
We put up a fence on the boundary with the neighboring house.
A river runs along the border between the prefectures.
Only with reading さかい
Read さかい and very often used in the pattern ...を境に, meaning that something changes from that point onward.
His life changed greatly after that accident.
Her marriage marked the point at which she left her hometown.
area; region; place; environment
Only when written 境 · Only with reading きょう
Usually read きょう. This is a literary or Sino-Japanese-style use for a place, region, sphere, or surrounding condition, not the ordinary word for an everyday area.
In older writing, 境 may be used to mean something like a place or realm.
Only when written 境 · Only with reading きょう
Usually read きょう. Common in elevated expressions for a spiritual, artistic, or psychological state, such as 無我の境.
During the performance, he entered a state of selfless absorption.
After long training, he drew near to a state of enlightenment.
cognitive object; object of perception
Only when written 境 · Only with reading きょう
Buddhist technical use, read きょう, for something taken as an object by the sense organs or the mind.
In Buddhism, 境 refers to an object of the mind or the senses.
Usage patterns
- 〈場所〉と〈場所〉の境the border between 〈place〉 and 〈place〉
A large river flows along the border between the two countries.
- 〈事〉を境にwith 〈event〉 as the turning point; from 〈event〉 onward
Starting from her graduation as a turning point, her life changed dramatically.
- 〈場所〉が境をなす〈place〉 forms the border
This river forms the border between the two prefectures.